On May 20, the Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former Georgia Southern University football player who suffered injuries after the football coach allegedly forced team members to fight one another during practice. The student, Jerome Pelham, was a member of the varsity football team at Georgia Southern University. During a spring practice in 2008, the football coach allegedly organized the team in two lines with players facing each other, and then ordered each pair of players to fight.
Category Archives: Education
Subscribe to Education RSS FeedOffice for Civil Rights’ Guidance Requires School Districts, Colleges, and Universities to Provide Students with Disabilities Equal Opportunity to Participate in Athletics
New guidance from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) clarifies that school districts, colleges, and universities must provide students with disabilities equal opportunity to participate in extracurricular athletics. The guidance also offers guidelines on the steps educators must take to meet that requirement. The guidance responds to a June 2010 U.S…. Continue Reading
Review of issues for 2013
The following is a summary of some of the key issues Congress and the Administration will be debating in 2013. Please contact us with any questions. We are happy to provide further analysis as well as insight into other areas of interest. Agriculture: Tom Vilsack is expected to stay on as Secretary of Agriculture…. Continue Reading
U.S. Department of Education Provides Guidance on Financial Aid Shopping Sheet
On August 30, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) provided additional guidance about the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet that was announced on July 25. The Shopping Sheet was developed as a tool to show a prospective student the personalized cost of a college education at a particular institution. ED has asked institutions voluntarily to adopt… Continue Reading
Department of Education Issues Report on “Helping to Ensure Access to Equal Education”
On November 28, 2012, Russlyn Ali, the U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, held a telephone conference to discuss the Office for Civil Rights new report “Helping to Ensure Access to Equal Education”. The report summarizes OCR’s compliance and enforcement activities between 2009 and 2012. On the call and in the report,… Continue Reading
U.S. Department of Education Offers Additional Guidance on Gainful Employment Disclosure Requirements
On June 30, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a decision that vacated several of the provisions of the Gainful Employment (“GE”) regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”) in 2010 and 2011. In its decision in Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities v. Duncan, the court left… Continue Reading
NCAA to Vote on New Enforcement Regime
The National Collegiate Athletic Association Board of Directors will vote on October 30, 2012 whether to adopt proposed rules that would revise NCAA’s enforcement regime. An NCAA working group proposed the rules in August 2012 in response to “recognition by presidential leadership that the values of intercollegiate athletics have become muddied”. The proposals would among… Continue Reading
Sequestration Would Curtail Government Spending
If Congress does act before January 1, 2013, mandatory spending cuts will take affect that could have a devastating impact across many domestic and defense programs. The Budget Control Act of 2011 established caps on discretionary funding that are estimated to reduce federal deficits by a total of at least $2.1 trillion over the next ten… Continue Reading
6th Circuit Court of Appeals Declines to Find Tenure Rights in Professor’s Rolling One-Year Contract
In Branham v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, No. 10-2305, 2012 WL 3156139 (6th Cir. Aug. 6, 2012), a federal appeals court held that the definition of “tenure” is a matter of contract interpretation. Interpreting a law professor’s contract, the Court refused to read references to “tenure” as a lifetime guarantee of employment when the… Continue Reading
Federal Court Dismisses Employment Statistics Suit Against Law School
A federal judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit brought against Thomas M. Cooley Law School (“Cooley”) by twelve of its graduates. The plaintiffs alleged that Cooley, a for-profit law school, deceived, defrauded, and misled them regarding Cooley graduates’ employment prospects. Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that the school made false representations about the “percentage of graduates… Continue Reading
State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement Draft Released
The Presidents’ Forum and the Council of State Governments recently released a first draft of a model interstate agreement pertinent to state authorization for distance education. The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (“SARA”) aims to reduce barriers to distance education through more efficient state regulation. Under SARA, an institution that is approved in its “home state”… Continue Reading
Eleventh Circuit Sides With Artist In Dispute Over the Depiction of the University of Alabama’s Uniforms
Does a university have the right to stop an artist from selling paintings and other expressive items that depict the school’s football uniforms? In a recent case involving the University of Alabama, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ answer was no. The court held that a painter’s First Amendment right of expression outweighed the university’s… Continue Reading
D.C. Circuit Addresses Department of Education “Program Integrity” Rules
On June 5 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision that invalidates parts of the Department of Education’s “program integrity” regulations but for the most part upholds them. The challenged regulations address incentive payments to student recruiters, misrepresentation in marketing and advertising, and state authorization. Last July, a… Continue Reading
U.S. tax reform: elements of reform already being developed by Congress
U.S. businesses and foreign multinationals with U.S. tax obligations should be on alert that the elements of a major U.S. tax reform legislative package are already in development within the U.S. Congress, the Obama Administration, and in interest groups and think tanks in Washington. The make-up of this tax reform package – to be debated… Continue Reading
U.S. Department of Education Takes Steps to Curb Student-Aid Fraud
The U.S. Department of Education announced in the Federal Register that it plans to develop new regulations to prevent fraud and promote proper use of federal student financial aid funds awarded to distance education students. The May 1 announcement follows an earlier ED Office of the Inspector General report that described the increase in fraud-related incidents… Continue Reading
Supreme Court Declines to Review Appeal by Christian Student Groups
On March 19, the Supreme Court announced, without comment, that it would not hear an appeal from two religious student groups challenging San Diego State University’s decision not to grant official recognition to the groups. In Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, the student groups had argued that the university violated their First Amendment rights… Continue Reading
OMB Proposes Long-Awaited Federal Grant Reforms, Seeks Public Comments
On February 28, 2012, the Office of Management and Budget published a long-awaited Advance Notice of Proposed Guidance (ANPG) titled Reform of Federal Policies Relating to Grants and Cooperative Agreements; Cost Principles and Administrative Requirements (Including Single Audit Act). The sponsored research community was cautiously hopeful that the proposed reforms would yield meaningful reductions in… Continue Reading
Welcome to HL Focus on Regulation
Hello and welcome to the Hogan Lovells Focus on Regulation. We are delighted to introduce you to our government regulatory blog. In an increasingly complex global market, it’s more important than ever to understand, anticipate, and quickly respond to a wide range of regulatory challenges. Our goal is to use this blog to bring you… Continue Reading